UK police arrest 2 men over arson attack on ambulances belonging to a
Jewish charity
[March 25, 2026] By
JILL LAWLESS
LONDON (AP)
— British police arrested two men on Wednesday in connection with an
arson attack on four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity, which
authorities are investigating as an antisemitic hate crime.
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View at burnt ambulances in a car park at Golders Green in London,
Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles
belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest.(AP
Photo/Alberto Pezzali) |
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The Metropolitan Police said the two men, aged 45 and 47, were
arrested in London on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger
life and both men have been taken to a police station in the
city for questioning.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing
London, said the arrests marked “an important breakthrough in
the investigation.” But she noted that surveillance camera
footage of the incident suggests three people were involved.
Police have not declared the incident to be a terror attack, but
are investigating a claim of responsibility by a group with
potential links to Iran.
The blaze early on Monday morning in Golders Green, a London
neighborhood with a large Jewish population, consumed four
ambulances belonging to the volunteer organization Hatzola
Northwest. Oxygen cylinders on the vehicles exploded, breaking
windows in an adjacent apartment block.
Also shattered was the community’s shaky sense of security,
already strained by wars in the Middle East and what many say is
soaring hatred of Jews.
The U.K. has accused Iran of using criminal proxies to conduct
attacks on European soil targeting opposition media outlets and
the Jewish community. Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence
service says more than 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots
were disrupted in the year to October.
Police are probing a claim of responsibility posted on social
media by a group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia,
which translates as the Islamic Movement of the Companions of
the Right.
Israel’s government has described it as a recently founded group
with suspected links to pro-Iran networks that has also claimed
responsibility for synagogue attacks in Belgium and the
Netherlands.
Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley said detectives are
investigating the claim but it is too early to attribute the
attack to the Iranian state.
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